Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-07

the harp of @ rapture, orforging the chain
of a bondage. And standing before you
to day with life on the one side and death
on the other; song on the one side aud
groaning on the other; mansions on the
one side and dungeons on the other;
heaven on the one side and hell on the
other-I put to you the question OF the
text: Chow old art thou?" Toward
what destiny are you tending, and how
fast are you getting on towards II?
Again, l remark that there many who
estimate their life on earth by their sor-
rows and their misfortuHes. Through &
great many of your lives the plowshare
hath gone very deep, turning up terri
BILE furrow. You have been betrayed,
and misrepresented, and set upon, and
slapped of impertinence, and pounded of
misfortune. The brightest life must have
its shadows, and
THE SMOoTHEsT PATH ITS THoRNs.
On the happiest brood the hawk
pounces. No escape from trouble OF
some kind. While glorious John Milton
was losing his eye-sight, ne heard that
Salmaslus was glad of it. While Sherl-
dams comedy was being enacted in Drury
Lane theater, Cumberland, his enemy,
sat growing at it in the stage box.
While Bishop Cooper was surrounded by
the favor of learned men, his wife took
his lexicon manuscript, the result OF
long life of anxiety and toll, and threw it
into the fire. Misfortune, trial, vexation
Tor almost every one. Pope, applauded
of all the world, has stoop in the Shout
der that annoys him so much that he las q
tunnel dug so that he may go uuooserved
from garden to grotto and from grotto to
garden. Cano, the famous Spanish ar
fist, is disguised with the crucitiX
that the priest holds before him, because
it is such poor specimen of sculpture.
And so, sometimes through taste, ana
sometimes through learned menace, and
sometimes through physical distresses;
aye, in ten thousand ways, troubles come
to harass and annoy. And yetit is unfair
20 measure a mans life by his inisfor-
tunes, because where there is one stalk
of nightshade there are fifty merigolds
and harebells; where there is one cloud
there are hundreds that
stray across the heavens, the glory of
land and sky asleep in their bo-
som. Because death came and
took your child away, did you
forget all the five
years, or the ten years, or the fifteen
years in which she came every night for
kiss, all the tones of your heart pealing
forth ct the sound OF her voice or the soft
touch of her hand? Because in some
financial Euroclydon your fortune went
into the breakers did you forget all those
years in which the luxuries and eXtrava-
yances of this life shOwered on your path
way? Alas! that is an unwise man, an
man, an unfair man, an I'M
man and, most of all,
AN UNCHRISTIAN MAN
who measures his life on earth by groans,
md tears, and dyspeptiC fit, and abuse,
md scCrn, and terror, and neuralgia
hrust.
Again: remark that there are many !
people VINO estimate their life on earth !
~ the amount of money they have &C
,umulated. They say: The year 1866, |
,r 1876, or 1856 was wasted" Why? |
Made no money. Now it is all cant and |
nsincerity to talk against money as
hough it had no value. 1t is refinement, |
md education, and 10000 blessed sur
1t is the spreading of the !
able that feeds your children's hunger.
{ is the lighting of the furnace that Keeps |
GU warm. 1t is the making of the bed
N which you rest from care and anxiety.
t is the carrying out at last of you to de-
ent sepulture, and the putting up Of the
lab on which is chiseled tle story of
CIR Christian hope. 1t is simply hypoc
isy; this TRADE in pulpit and lecture
all, against money as though it had no
ses. 1t is hands, and feet, and sails,
nd 10 000 grand and gloriOuS enterprises.
'ut while ell this is so, ne Who uses
honey or thinks of money as anything
ut 2 means to an end, will find out his
listake when the glittering treasures
lip out of his nerveless grasp and he
oes cut of this world without shilling
( money or d certificate of stock.
lie might better have been the
hristian porter that opened his
ian, who last night heaved the coal into
is cellar. Bonds and mortgages ard
,ases have their use, but they make g
oor yardstick with which to measure
fe. They that boast themselves in their
ealth and trust on the multitude Of
leir riches, none OF them can by any
leans redeem his brother, nor give to
cd ransom for him that he should hot
It corruption. "Wlse men die, like
Use the fool and the british person per
h and leave their wealth to others"
But | remark: There are many
iSh there were more-who estimate
lelr life by their
ORAL AND SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT.
IL is not sinful egotism for CnrIStia
ian to say, 81 am purer than l used to
=. am more COnsecrated to Carist
lan | used t. be. l have got over
reat many OF the bad habits in which
5ed to indulge. | am a great deal bet
r man than l used to be-" There is TO
nful egotism in that. 1t is not base
yotism for soldier to say, az know
ore about military tactics than usec
, before l took musket in my hand
I'D learned to present arms and when |
was pest to the drill officer" II is
Of base egotism for sailor to say, ~
new how better to clue down the mizzen .
,psail than used to before l had ever
zen ship" And there is no sinful CO.
$ m when a Christian man, fighting the !
ittles of the Lord, or if you will have it,
)Yaging toward haven of eternal rest,
Iys, 81 know more about spiritual tao [
cs and about vOyaging toward heaven
ian used to-" Why, there are those
this presence who have measured
noes with many foe and endorsed it.
here are Christian men here who have |
come swarthy by hsmmering at the |
rye of calamity. They stand on an en-
rely different plane of character from |
at which they once occupied. They are (
assuring their life on earth by golden
ited Sabbaths, by pentecOstal prayer I
eatinus NV communion tables hv haD- '
small fonts, by hallelujahs in the tenn '
e. They have stood on Sinai and heard I
thunder. They have stood on Pisgah
I'd looked over iuto the promised land. c
hey have stood on Calvary and seen the |
oss bleed. They can, like Paul the t
postle, write on their heaviest troubles ,
light" and shut for a moment" The /
lrkest night their SOULS irradiated, as i
as the night over Bethlehem, by the i
ces of those who have come to pro- f
i'm 0lOry eu5 uOod .prepr They are :